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ANS awards Huntington Medals to Amandry and Mossman

The Trustees of the American Numismatic Society unanimously approved to award the Huntington Medal Award to two distinguished numismatists. Dr. Michel Amandry, Director of the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France, was awarded the 2004 Medal for his exemplary work in the field of ancient numismatics. Dr. Philip Mossman was given the 2005 medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of Colonial numismatics. The committee's Chairman, Professor Jere L. Bacharach, commented on both medalists outstanding record, "Michel Amandry is one of the most distinguished numismatists, who, as co-author of Roman Provincial Coinage, has produced some of the most important numismatic scholarship on Roman provincial coinage. Dr. Mossman's book on Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, A Numismatic, Economic and Historical Correlation is without a doubt one of the best books on Colonial numismatics, which is praised by historians and numismatists alike." The ANS will announce the dates for the two award ceremonies, which will be held in 2006.

Dr. Amandry was born in 1949 in Greece. From an early age he was exposed through his father Pierre Amandry, one of France's best-known archaeologists, to the study of antiquity. After his baccalauréat in Strasbourg, Alsace, he studied at the university, where he received his Licence and Maîum;trise in Classics. For his doctorate he chose a numismatic topic with the coinage of the duovirs at Corinth. He has spent his academic career as curator at the coin cabinet of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which he has been leading as Director since 1991. In addition he has held various teaching appointments in Paris. As Editor of the Revue Numismatique and many other publications, he is involved in many other numismatic organizations and societies. In his research he has been instrumental in bringing the so-called Roman Provincial coinage to the attention of numismatists and historians. With Andrew Burnett, he embarked on a ten-volume cataloguing project of all coinages of the Roman provinces, one of the most ambitious numismatics projects undertaken in recent decades. Other areas of important work are the coinages of Cyprus, coin hoards from France, and many general overviews.

Dr. Philip Mossman, 2005 Huntington Medallist, has been a collector and numismatic researcher since he was a child. Born in 1933 in Worcester, MA, he received his AB from Dartmouth College, where he also attended medical school. After obtaining his MA and MD from Harvard Medical School, he served as Lieutenant on active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve. His professional career as Director of Rehabilitation at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, ME, was largely devoted to the rehabilitation of stroke victims, an area in which Dr. Mossman has published the standard work A Problem Oriented Approach to Stroke Rehabilitation. Dr. Mossman's numismatic career has been concerned with the early colonial period. His book on Money of the American Colonies and Confederation, A Numismatic, Economic and Historical Correlation is justly regarded as one of the finest works on the numismatic and economic history of the colonial period. His work focuses on setting the numismatic evidence into a historic context by researching archival documents. More recently he has been trying to compile a census of coin finds from early sites, where he uses both the results of professional archaeologists and metal detectorists. He has worked on counterfeit coinages, Connecticut coppers and many other early coinages. As a fluent French speaker, he has been of much help as an editor of other researchers's books, which owe much to his knowledge. From 1995 to 2000, he served as Editor of the Colonial Newsletter. His fascination with the coinages of Nova Scotia has a strong personal dimension. His father's family traces its roots to Nova Scotia in the mid-Eighteenth Century, which prompted him to write a book about his own family history, In Search of David, The Saga of a Pioneer to Nova Scotia in 1750.